The future of remembrance in united Germany: Illustrated Talk with refreshments. Speaker - Dr Debbie Pinfold; University of Bristol. When Germany reunited in 1990  East and West Germany had very distinct memory cultures of the National Socialism and World War II. The years following unification were  marked by efforts to create a unified culture of remembrance […]

** This year's season of films gets underway with this 2013 drama from Hannover-based director Christian Schochow, starring Joerdis Triebel. East German Nelly Senff and her young son Alexej emigrate to West  Germany in the late 1970s, three years after Nelly's boyfriend Wassilij was killed in a car accident. In the west, she wants to […]

** The Hanseatic League, considered an ancient forerunner of the European Union, ruled the waves in the Renaissance. Based along the German-speaking Baltic and North Sea coasts, it had an important outpost in London, now almost forgotten. Located on the Thames near modern-day Cannon Street station, the Steelyard was a walled community that served as […]

** Our season of German films comes to an end with Gundermann (2018) This film, directed by Andreas Dresen, is a German biopic about singer-songwriter Gerhard Gundermann, who worked as an excavator operator in an East German lignite mine while also being a popular musician. The film moves between two timelines -- his life before and after German reunification -- […]

** Join us for a Zoom talk tracing Berlin’s extraordinary Cold War story — from the four-power occupation and the 1948–49 Berlin Airlift, through the building of the Wall in 1961, to the tense stand-offs and superpower summits that made the city the front line of East-West confrontation. The talk explores daily life in a city split between two worlds, and […]

** Talk and tour at 45-47, The Lofthouse, College Rd, Ashley Down, Bristol BS7 9FG. Housed in one of the original Ashley Down orphan homes, this small museum tells the extraordinary story of George Müller -- born in Prussia, educated at Halle University, and later a Bristol resident who cared for and educated over 10,000 orphans through the Victorian era, funded […]